Voters Get Say On Chavez

November 29, 2002|By Juan Forero The New York Times

LIMA, Peru — The electoral authorities in Venezuela said Thursday that a nonbinding referendum would occur in February on whether that country's mercurial president, Hugo ChM-avez, should remain in power.

The left-leaning government immediately rejected the decision as unconstitutional, with Vice President JosM-i Vicente Rangel calling it a "mugging" of Venezuelan democracy.

Venezuela's emboldened opposition movement, meanwhile, announced that it would go ahead with a general strike to shut down the country Monday, unless the government accepts the National Electoral Council's decision.

The latest developments increased the political turbulence in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, where opponents are determined to remove ChM-avez from power. A former paratrooper who was elected in 1998, he has been under increasing pressure to resign. An influential collection of businessmen, politicians and labor leaders accuse ChM-avez of taking Venezuela on a radical left-wing path.

The referendum, set for Feb. 2, would not of itself remove ChM-avez from office. But the opposition is hoping that millions will vote against him, debilitating him to the point where he would resign voluntarily.

Voters would be asked if they agreed that ChM-avez should "immediately resign voluntarily" from his post, the Electoral Council announced early Thursday morning after deliberating for eight hours.

The ChM-avez government has insisted that instead of the nonbinding referendum, it would accept a binding one in August, halfway through the president's term as permitted by the constitution.

Government ministers and allies charged that Thursday's decision was politically motivated and unduly influenced by opposition groups whose interests are threatened by ChM-avez's reforms.

"We are in agreement that the path should be elections, but without tricks, without ambushes, and this was an ambush," Rangel told reporters in Caracas on Thursday.

Government officials said they would challenge the decision before Venezuela's Supreme Court, arguing that the Electoral Council did not have the required number of votes to make its decision. "This is a coup d'M-itat against the electoral statutes," said William Lara, president of the National Assembly and a close ally of the president.

But Alfredo Avella, the president of the Electoral Council, said the 3-2 vote in favor of the referendum was legal under Venezuela's electoral statutes.

The opposition movement collected what it said were 2 million signatures in favor of a referendum and turned them over to the Electoral Council on Nov. 4.

ChM-avez did not immediately comment on the Electoral Council's decision. But in recent days, he has harshly criticized the opposition and reiterated that he would not step aside under pressure.

"Even if they have a referendum and get 90 percent of the votes, I will not resign," he said in his radio address last Sunday. "You can forget about it." His comments prompted criticism from Otto Reich, who was recently named special adviser on Latin America to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.